7-Year Old and Father Launch Spacecraft
(Video Link)
Luke Geissbühler and his 7-year old son, Max, sent a camera attached to a balloon up into very low earth orbit:
Their so-called spacecraft was a helium-filled weather balloon rated to burst at 19-feet in diameter with a high-definition camera placed in a capsule handmade out of Styrofoam.
They attached a parachute to the payload to bring the camera safely back to Earth.
The balloon rose 19 miles into the stratosphere before rupturing, briefly experienced weightlessness, and then plummeted to the earth. It landed about 30 miles north of the launch site.
The elder Geissbühler estimates that the entire project cost just $400-500.
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